[artpiggo]

Just for info, I just changed my phone to xperia 10 IV because of compact size and lightweight.

I would say the sound tuning is on bright side, kinda less bass than I expected and like you already know, the power output is low.

For the sound, I think my old samsung s10+ sounds better than sony to my ears.

 

[Chris Kaoss]

So the 10 and 1/ 5 doesn't share the same tuning.
Quite interesting.
Thanks for the info.

 

[352178]

I disagree, I found the Xperia 10 IV warm and bassy with Focal Listen Pro and HD 599 SE. Also, it sounded considerably better in every way than Xperia 1 IV, no comparison at all.

 

[sh0bo]

Oh guys, i can't describe how much im happy you are still here and this place still exist...

It's like a year i didn't come here since when i picked a Vivo nex S and was really satisfied with it sound even i would have well thrown an ear on the 6 plus.

So, are there new gear to surpass last vivo's kingdom still?

 

[sh0bo]

I saw this phone: sony Xperia a III

Have you heard about ?

 

[sh0bo]

So from reading few pages ago i still see the same familiar names like v10, 20, etc HTC 10, so i must gess the new audiophile phone gen hasn't comes out

 

[sh0bo]

Sony Xperia 1 III*

 

[Chris Kaoss]

Simply said: No. ^^

With the Xperia 1 III it's not that easy.
It has a warmer tonality, so best bet is to pair it with extremely v-shaped or brighter iems, imo.
And it doesn't have the power for "more demanding" headphones/ iems.
I've to crank it up to nearly max volume with my FiiO FD5.

I wouldn't say it's an "audiophile" phone.
Just a smartphone with 3.5 connector.

But I still enjoy it, bc it serves all my needs, except the weak battery performance.

 

[sh0bo]

Simply said: No. ^^

With the Xperia 1 III it's not that easy.
It has a warmer tonality, so best bet is to pair it with extremely v-shaped or brighter iems, imo.
And it doesn't have the power for "more demanding" headphones/ iems.
I've to crank it up to nearly max volume with my FiiO FD5.

I wouldn't say it's an "audiophile" phone.
Just a smartphone with 3.5 connector.

But I still enjoy it, bc it serves all my needs, except the weak battery performance.

Oh ok, thx.
I gess Japanese audio often tend to have warm signature. its not to much to displease me.

I might need some enlightenment
About what makes for the most an audiophile phone. Is it its capabilities to restitute a high quality sound and by ''high quality'' i would try to say high instrument separation, good left right separation, high details, and good dynamics. Or/and, Its abilies to drive demanding headphones ?

I feel great with the nex s sound rendition. instruments dont step on each others it shows up details that dosent appear on other gear, the mid, guirars are real sharp, its not flat etc but i dont know how far it can drive big headphones since i pair it with iem.

 

[Chris Kaoss]

Oh ok, thx.
I gess Japanese audio often tend to have warm signature. its not to much to displease me.

I might need some enlightenment
About what makes for the most an audiophile phone. Is it its capabilities to restitute a high quality sound and by ''high quality'' i would try to say high instrument separation, good left right separation, high details, and good dynamics. Or/and, Its abilies to drive demanding headphones ?

I feel great with the nex s sound rendition. instruments dont step on each others it shows up details that dosent appear on other gear, the mid, guirars are real sharp, its not flat etc but i dont know how far it can drive big headphones since i pair it with iem.

Don't get me wrong.
The sound of the Xperia 1 III, when paired with the right iem, is pretty good.
But the power output is quite low.

Can't comment about separation and so on, bc when I try to start to listen critically, i got lost to the music immediately. ^^
Never tried to do that with a smartphone.

It's also hard to volume match the iem you want to test these smartphones with, i think.
But again, never tried that by myself.

 

[sh0bo]

Don't get me wrong.
The sound of the Xperia 1 III, when paired with the right iem, is pretty good.
But the power output is quite low.

Can't comment about separation and so on, bc when I try to start to listen critically, i got lost to the music immediately. ^^
Never tried to do that with a smartphone.

It's also hard to volume match the iem you want to test these smartphones with, i think.
But again, never tried that by myself.

Does the Sony has a dedicated dac ?

So the audiophile concept on phones describe the ability to carry high impedance headphone above the sound accuracy because if the Sony phone sound can get u lost in it, it definitely can't sound like any random phone.

With what other phones did you compare the markiii with?

 

[Chris Kaoss]

Does the Sony has a dedicated dac ?

So the audiophile concept on phones describe the ability to carry high impedance headphone above the sound accuracy because if the Sony phone sound can get u lost in it, it definitely can sound like any random phone.

With what other phones did you compared the markiii ?

No, it doesn't.
It's just the sound tuning given by Sony, i guess.

Me being lost in the music isn't a matter of gear, I'd say. ^^
So the gear always takes 2nd place.
I'm an addicted to music, i think.

But who in this forum isn't? ?

My previous Smartphone was LG V30, which, in comparison to the Xperia 1 III, has a lot of power.

On the Sony, it's just the weak output in voltage and current.
But to serve this weakness, i got the BTR5 on hand, which is the "wireless sibling" of the V30, imo and ime. (connected via USB)

After spending many hours comparing the V30 and the BTR5, it has formed my opinion not to stuck on a smartphone alone.
Take the phone that ticks all (most) of your boxes and pair it with something like the BTR5 etc. (It's even more convenient, not attached to strings if you want to take a quick shot)(my use case )

But I always get the point searching for that 1 thing, hence I bought the V30 in 2018, which was a revelation for me.

 

[sh0bo]

No, it doesn't.
It's just the sound tuning given by Sony, i guess.

Me being lost in the music isn't a matter of gear, I'd say. ^^
So the gear always takes 2nd place.
I'm an addicted to music, i think.

But who in this forum isn't? ?

My previous Smartphone was LG V30, which, in comparison to the Xperia 1 III, has a lot of power.

On the Sony, it's just the weak output in voltage and current.
But to serve this weakness, i got the BTR5 on hand, which is the "wireless sibling" of the V30, imo and ime. (connected via USB)

After spending many hours comparing the V30 and the BTR5, it has formed my opinion not to stuck on a smartphone alone.
Take the phone that ticks all (most) of your boxes and pair it with something like the BTR5 etc. (It's even more convenient, not attached to strings if you want to take a quick shot)(my use case )

But I always get the point searching for that 1 thing, hence I bought the V30 in 2018, which was a revelation for me.

I see i see

I gess that sony isn't worth i spend 1/2k on surely to get a downgraded audio experience and i don't need to upgrade my gear to 4k, 190khz or better camera.
Thx for your sharing.

 

[andyph666]

Does v60 have aptx adaptive support and works at 24 bit 96 khz? Cant find this info anywhere. Thanks.

 

[khades]

So after reading that thread and being aware that asus changed their dacs to a qualcomm built in dacs i bought myself a new Zenphone 9, being fully aware that it might have its dac badly done.

Well the answer - it is done perfectly.

So there's small review.

Actively used amps\dacs

1) Abigail and Charmtek trp24
2) Sonata E44
3) Steinberg UR22mkII with balanced connection to Ifi Zen Can

Actively used iems

1) Moondrop Chu
2) Salnotes Zero
3) Shouer S12
4) Sony IER-M9

So small preable. I wanted some new phone with actual good jack output, seeing the comments here and seeing that asus rog phone 6 switched to qualcomm dac there was concerns over how Asus implement that dac. I am fully aware that my actively used IEMs are quite efficient so i am fully aware that this dac probably wont drive something overly juicy. But the combination of small size (I LOVE SMALL PHONES), big battery (oh it is BIIIG) and jack sold be on buying that phone.

Frequency response: One of the reason i actively use cx31993 dongles and Sonata e44 is that they have same FR as my desktop Steinberg + IFI Zen Can. And Zenphone 9 deliveres same FR. Dead same.

Soundstage and imaging: After testing it with E44 and Abigail i found out that Zenphone has the same soundstage width as E44, and same somewhat cramped depth as E44 (compared to Zen Can). It was quite clear that Abigail was more dense and blurry in that regard.

Dynamics: That's where Zenphone did a sliiight step back compared to E44. Sometimes in some track it was audible for a moments that decays were bit off compared to E44 (I was testing it with balanced cable and 4.4mm to 3.5mm adapter). Granted that cases were REALLY rare. And you need to actively search out for them. Meanwhile compared to Abigail it was quite clean on testing that more cramped soundstage in Abigail hid some dynamics problems as well.

Power: Never did more than 50% on volume with POWERSAVE AUDIO OUTPUT ON (ye, it seem that they did full power implementation of dac with ability to make it low power in power management setting).

Conclusions: I'd say if the phone had same output as cx31993 dongle i would be pleased, but the phone actually overdelivered. The implementation of that DAC is quite great.
Master audio is crap as all DSPs yeh, but overall "hack" is to put it on music mode and it will skip all DSP.

I am really happy that i dont need to carry on dongles anymore to get great sound. Thanks Asus for a phone with actually good 3.5 jack. And actual day lasting battery (easily does 10hours of seeding wifi, playing youtube with screen on and playing music through iems).

I know that i might be insufficient for headphones or iems that requires power just to drive them but given my iems i'd say that "scalability" of power is not an issue here for more or less efficient ones.